Beleaguered HTC made 61 percent less in October 2012 than October 2011

The company suffered a rough 2012, but has new handsets that may attract buyers.

Phone maker HTC has just published its revenue numbers for October of 2012, and the news isn't good: the company pulled in $17.2 billion New Taiwan Dollars, which is just about 61 percent lower than the $44.1 billion it reported in October of 2011. The year-to-date numbers aren't any better: at this point in 2011, HTC had made about $408.5 billion, but the total for 2012 is a much-lower $246.2 billion.

The company has suffered a number of setbacks recently, most significantly its complete exclusion from the tablet market. Sales of HTC's Flyer and Jetstream tablets apparently "met expectations," HTC global online communications manager Jeff Gordon told Fierce Wireless, but at $299 and $700 respectively were not equipped to compete in a post-Kindle Fire, post-Nexus 7 market.

Things in October 2011 were considerably rosier: the company's $44.1 billion in revenue was 36 percent higher than the $32.4 billion the company made in October of 2010. This reversal of fortunes is reflected in the wording of HTC's press releases: the October 2011 release talks about year-over-year growth and includes a table demonstrating just how far up revenues had gone; the terse October 2012 release is less than three-dozen words long and includes no such contextual information (both releases are available from HTC's investor page).

HTC is looking to turn things around, though—its recent Android-based One X+ and Windows Phone 8-based 8X handsets have both received mostly positive reviews—but the competition is stiff. Samsung has snapped up a great deal of the Android phone market, and competitors like LG are stepping up their games with phones like the Optimus G and the Nexus 4. HTC also sent a message to journalists today about an upcoming event with Verizon on November 13th—Ars will be on the scene, and if there's anything there that might help HTC in the coming year, we'll be reporting on it.

Wow, I didn't even realize HTC had released a tablet. None of the tech sites I frequent reviewed it. There is a chance it was mentioned in passing in some article I might have missed...

I really do agree with the common consensus that HTC's constant releasing of devices means no one can keep track of their entire product portfolio which means they get less buzz then other companies.

To be fair, Samsung also releases a lot of devices, but they also seem to be doing a better job of making a clear distinction between their "high quality devices we want reviewed" and the rest of their portfolio. Then again with all of Samsung's upcoming devices they may soon be over-saturated as well.

There is something extremely wrong with those numbers. Are they in "New Taiwan Dollars"?

Quick glance at their last financial statement reveals that they only made about 8Bn USD in the first 9 months of 2012 combined, so those October numbers are either wrong, or in the wrong unit.

Edit: Yup, turns out the numbers are New Taiwan $. You should really make that clear, because $ almost universally refers to USD. In fact, even HTC's press release prints the numbers as NT$17.2bn and NT$246.2bn.

The Nov 13th event should almost certainly be to announce the Droid DNA (Verizon version of the HTC J Butterfly, the 1080p super-phone that's currently available in Japan). 1080p 5" screen, quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2 gigs of ram, and Android 4.2 would quickly give HTC the 'king of specs' award for an Android device.

I just hope an AT&T version is announced and released soon - I'd love to have that phone, I'm just not willing to switch to Verizon.

I can't say I've ever had problems with the Samsung or Apple devices I have owned so I don't have a problem with them doing well but I really hope they don't end up being the only players in the market.

I have to say that the Verizon version of the 8X has me cautiously optimistic. Adding wireless charging took away the last real advantage of the 920, I'm basically getting the same phone but in a slimmer/lighter package now.

To be fair, Samsung also releases a lot of devices, but they also seem to be doing a better job of making a clear distinction between their "high quality devices we want reviewed" and the rest of their portfolio. Then again with all of Samsung's upcoming devices they may soon be over-saturated as well.

Yeah, this probably also isn't helping with keeping devices updated. Like, I honestly couldn't tell you if the Incredible 2 was supposed to be a "high quality device," but it certainly seemed like a decently upper-end model when I got it. Yet they still haven't produced a promised update to ICS, and keep pushing the date back to "someday, maybe."

So yeah, with that level of support don't really expect my next purchase to be an HTC handset.

I hope they take this to heart and sort some things out. I've only had one HTC phone and it had two faults: 1. No OS upgrades. 2. A weak radio.

Everything else was nice. Solidly constructed. Good choice of hardware for the time. Battery was easily replaceable.

I'll largely agree, though hardware-wise the Inc2 does have an issue with the USB/charging port crapping out. Mine has, and looking online it seems to be a common problem. But yeah, easy to replace the battery, nice form factor, and otherwise solid construction.

But next time I'll probably try to find something of similar quality from somebody that will actually update their OS.

There is something extremely wrong with those numbers. Are they in "New Taiwan Dollars"?

Quick glance at their last financial statement reveals that they only made about 8Bn USD in the first 9 months of 2012 combined, so those October numbers are either wrong, or in the wrong unit.

Edit: Yup, turns out the numbers are New Taiwan $. You should really make that clear, because $ almost universally refers to USD. In fact, even HTC's press release prints the numbers as NT$17.2bn and NT$246.2bn.

I recently bought a One S to replace my Nexus S. It’s one of only two really good midsized Android phones available, imo, and I happened to be on the carrier for which it was released. And that’s the problem. Their phones all seem to be exclusives. I’ve seen giant ads in the subway for the Galaxy SIII, and they could work on almost anyone (in fact, they seem to be doing just that). Instead HTC has one newish phone for each major carrier, and they’re all different sizes with different spec levels.

I really like their sense of design, ergonomics, cameras, and screen quality (if not specs, since the One S’s is just okay). I’d hate to see them drop out of the market. Honestly at that point the iPhone would probably appeal to me more than most of the Android phones available.

I hope they take this to heart and sort some things out. I've only had one HTC phone and it had two faults: 1. No OS upgrades. 2. A weak radio.

Everything else was nice. Solidly constructed. Good choice of hardware for the time. Battery was easily replaceable.

I'll largely agree, though hardware-wise the Inc2 does have an issue with the USB/charging port crapping out. Mine has, and looking online it seems to be a common problem. But yeah, easy to replace the battery, nice form factor, and otherwise solid construction.

But next time I'll probably try to find something of similar quality from somebody that will actually update their OS.

While I have not had some of the problems mentioned here I have had some, so I am also not suprised.

If I could say I trusted HTC to remedy problems in the future I would feel a little bad about this report, but being stuck with an Inspire 4G that will receive not more OS updates according to HTC, and has stability problems to the point that it won't always work the same way twice (ex. unreliable bluetooth connectivity, stability issue causing lockups or reboots, unreliable GPS function requiring restart of phone to get a fix, etc).

When I thought that issues would be fixed with an ICS update, then get told that is never is going to happen now, it makes me considerably less confident in a manufacturer. Sure, I could just root the phone, but I really don't want or care to anymore.

I mean this phone replaced a Nokia Symbian phone (E63) that I only wanted to get rid of because of the lack of software and certain unsupported hardware features, like GPS. HTC has driven me to a point that I almost wish I had stayed with that Nokia phone and, when I am up for renewal, I may even consider abandoning Android altogether to go to a Nikia Windows Phone or give up and go iPhone.

Unfortunately, you're not their target market. Geeks that read xda-developers daily aren't a large enough market to make scads of money... Everybody wants who Apple has as their customers... people with a reasonable amount of disposable income and enough vanity to upgrade things when a new one comes out and will pay extra for the "in" thing.

HTC makes quality phones with comparable features to Samsung and Apple... but they just lack that "it" factor.

I've been very happy with my Incredible S, even if the ICS update was only available from their dev site due to carrier laziness.

I'd consider switching out of android if HTC go bust. Samsung's overuse of glossy plastics are annoying, and the minimal effort google seem to put into their Exchange support mean a Nexus device isn't an option for work (third-party mail apps are not permitted).

What gets me is that their sales were improving, so they changed strategy. HTC didn't even release a new phone in the Sep 2012 quarter besides the Droid Incredible 4G LTE. Compared to last year they were pumping out phones on what seemed like a weekly basis, in the first 9 months of 2011 they released 16 different handsets, in 2012 we're looking at 9, four of which were the One products launched in April and there was the revamp Desire line that has seemingly gone to minor markets.

Last year had Incredible's, Evo's, Desire's, the lot. This year was the One line and they bet the farm on it. I can't understand the logic behind it though.

This is a shame. Sense had been growing in size and resource suck, up to and including the sensation.

But the One series have been the beginning of a turnaround for HTC's products - the One X received very favourable reviews - it's just a shame they've done done so well in the market. I'm very happy with my One X.

HTC declared that it will completely exit the Korean market recently because it couldn't compete at all. Admittedly, Samsung has a huge edge here, but if you can't even hold onto your own niche, it really shows how tough of a spot you're in.

Good luck, HTC. My Touch Diamond, Desire, and Nexus One will miss you.

The HTC Desire was my first and still current Android device and I hate it. It seemed that their infamous "sense" malware interfered with or crippled bluetooth, wifi streaming and it devoured what little memory the device shipped with. Coupled with all the other problems I've had with it, I won't be sad to see this Taiwanese knock-off company sink without trace.

Well is doesn't help that their HTC One X+ and 8X phones are going to be AT&T exclusives. This is the kind of shit killing some of these smaller manufacturers. I am getting ready to change carriers in the next month or so, I am REALLY interested in the 8X, but I sure as shit am not going to move to AT&T (ugh!), so I guess I won't be getting an HTC phone.

Well is doesn't help that their HTC One X+ and 8X phones are going to be AT&T exclusives. This is the kind of shit killing some of these smaller manufacturers. I am getting ready to change carriers in the next month or so, I am REALLY interested in the 8X, but I sure as shit am not going to move to AT&T (ugh!), so I guess I won't be getting an HTC phone.

Well is doesn't help that their HTC One X+ and 8X phones are going to be AT&T exclusives. This is the kind of shit killing some of these smaller manufacturers. I am getting ready to change carriers in the next month or so, I am REALLY interested in the 8X, but I sure as shit am not going to move to AT&T (ugh!), so I guess I won't be getting an HTC phone.

The 8X is coming to T-Mobile as well.

And Verizon. And VZ put out a press release that their version would have wireless charging. They are doing a good job getting the 8X to as many carriers as possible.

HTC Flyer is a fine tablet, but HTC decided not to get proper support or do anything to support it over preloading a few nice tablet enabled programs with it. They could have made a 10' version of it or better yet, a 13'. I like the One X though. Its pretty and smooth.

2 things.One, most importantly, is marketing. HTC has the hardware, for the most part. They need to market better. Samsung is seeing great gains, but they're also deploying a successful marketing push.Two, a Nexus phone. Something that would showcase their hardware without being hobbled by the carriers. As part of this, why the crap does the HTC One X + NOT have 2gb of RAM?

stuck with an Inspire 4G that will receive not more OS updates according to HTC, and has stability problems to the point that it won't always work the same way twice (ex. unreliable bluetooth connectivity, stability issue causing lockups or reboots, unreliable GPS function requiring restart of phone to get a fix, etc)

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.